Obviously, what Allen could think of, Thomas also thought of.

The two looked at each other, and Alan was a little moved!

…

On the surface, this thing is the expansion of the scope of a single management area, but secretly it is equivalent to the expansion of Allen's fiefdom as well. The benefits are huge!

As we all know, nearly half of the existing nobility are lifelong rather than hereditary.

Excluding these lifelong nobles, the remaining hereditary nobles number only about 600 households.

Among these 600 or so noble families, perhaps less than 10% of them have fiefs and still hold them.

This 10% does not mean that more than sixty noble families still have fiefs.

Because the actual situation is a little more complicated.

For example, some baron and viscount families may not have their own fiefdoms. Although they were hereditary nobles at the time, they had no fiefdoms and the title was just empty.

Such nobles accounted for more than half of the more than 600 noble families.

This group of families without fiefdoms may have secretly bought a lot of land during the years of their family development.

These lands are not fiefs, but they are better than fiefs.

There were also many people who sold all their family lands, like the Duke of Angus.

These people are poor people who theoretically have fiefs but actually have no fiefs.

So... no one can tell for sure how much land each company has, but as long as you don't spend a large amount of money to buy land, there is basically no opportunity to expand the land area openly.

Although the Hill family is very powerful in Wales, their land is only a small piece of Carmarthenshire. Outside of Carmarthenshire, Alan only has fame, not practical things. Of course... if he is determined to deal with someone in Wales... that is another matter.

But the land and the actual control of these things are completely different from before.

…

Just like today's nobles cannot collect taxes in their own fiefdoms, why did Alan bring the Bentley cars and electronics factories he acquired to Carmarthenshire?

There are tax benefits here!

He can control the county councillors, so he doesn't need to engage in tax evasion. All Allen does is to have the county council directly pass resolutions on tax reductions for companies.

This thing is easy and safe to operate, and outsiders can't tell why.

It's only reasonable for the county council to give local businesses a little tax break as a contribution to their fiefdom and hometown, right?

It’s just that sometimes, this tax benefit is a little bit bigger…

In the past, there were only two or three big and small cats in Carmarthenshire. Even the largest city, Llanelli, didn't have much to gain. But if Swansea was expanded...

Just in terms of the city's tax revenue, there is a lot of room for manipulation. This is like...giving a rice jar full of rice to a mouse, and giving a large bone without meat to a dog...

…

After thinking about the benefits, there are also some doubts here.

Firstly... the current Border Commission is headed by England, which means they are in charge of affairs in England, but they have no control over Wales.

Why would they find Thomas and tell him about this when they were so far away?

Thinking of this, Alan put the fishing rod on the rack, turned his head and looked at Thomas, smiled and said, "Did Sir John Benham tell you why he told you this news? Can they control Wales now?"

"He didn't say that."

Thomas is in his forties and now feels a little embarrassed by Alan's question.

The other party did not say much else. To be exact, he just treated Thomas as a messenger.

The other party needs to pass the message to Allen through him, and only if he is interested will he tell the rest.

Aristocrats like Allen, although they seem to be doing nothing or just playing around and not doing anything serious, their status as aristocrats is there. Not everyone can see them if they want to. Even if they come to visit, ordinary people can't even enter the gate of the Hill manor. Even if someone like Thomas wants to find Allen to report a work, he has to apply to Butler Hut first.

How many times did Thomas have to apply before he was called in for questioning?

For example, for some people outside, if they didn't know Allen before and didn't have any introducer to them, it would be even more difficult to meet him, even though John Banham was a knight.

But Alan’s butler is also a knight…

A knight might be rare outside, but in the eyes of these old-fashioned nobles, he is almost equivalent to a servant.

But this knight also has his own pride. Since he can't meet Allen, he might as well meet Allen's dog.

This dog... is Thomas. People can make an appointment with Thomas directly through administrative procedures, and then let Thomas convey the message and talk to Alan through another person.

When Thomas thought about how the knight, even though he was just a small knight, was so arrogant towards him, he felt annoyed and aggrieved... After being annoyed, all that was left was endless desire.

If one day he does a good job, I wonder if this gentleman in front of him can reward him with a title?

Just like Butler Hutt...

…

"No……?"

Alan narrowed his eyes and sneered.

This benefit that comes right to your door seems very tempting, but there is no such thing as pie in the sky in this world. It is impossible to expand the single management area without paying a price.

Judging from the data on paper, Swansea, compared with several other major Welsh cities, seems to be ranked in the top five at most.

But compared with Carmarthenshire, it is a city that is equivalent to the entire Carmarthenshire.

For a city like this, why would the people in charge, unless they are crazy, support merging Swansea into Carmarthenshire?

People expand the single management area for development, not for poverty alleviation!

If they really want to get together, someone needs to do the work, and now the other party has passed the topic on to me through Thomas.

This means that it is possible to do it, and the message will be sent through Thomas first to test Master Allen!

If they are interested, send Thomas to continue contacting them. If they are not interested... then there will probably be no further news.

And Alan thought a lot. If this department was newly established, it was established on the premise of replacing the previous Border Committee.

Then they...

The Hill family is a member of the Border Committee. This new organization now wants to use this bait to seduce them? In order to achieve the purpose of supporting them?

Alan thought of this and felt a little uncertain...

Or is it that they have some unsolvable problems and really need me, so they are trying to win me over in this way?

"When you go back, go find Sir John Benham and ask him about the follow-up. You don't need him to come to see me. You can represent me."

Allen hated this kind of mysterious way of doing things. Since the other party wanted to play like this, he would support him and let him continue playing...

"Yes! Thank you, sir..."

Thomas thought that Allen was deliberately supporting him and was deeply moved by what he heard as he spoke on his behalf.

"By the way, sir...here is the information you requested."

Thomas pulled out a thick information sheet from his briefcase and handed it to Alan with both hands. The sheet contained information about the shareholders of Welsh TV.

…

“Are there any troublesome characters here?”

Alan waved his hand to signal Thomas to take the information first, while he picked up the fishing rod again and threw a few more spoonfuls of corn kernels into the river.

"Troublesome character..."

Thomas pondered for a moment, then flipped through the documents, found a copy, held it up with both hands and let Alan take a look, then introduced: "Sir... this one is called Leipzig. I know this old guy. He seems to have some relatives with the Russell family. In recent years, he has become more and more... arrogant..."

"Arrogant? Haha... Arrogant, okay. The Russell family, is that the Russell family that lives in Swansea?"

“That’s them!”

"Oh... Interesting. He is a relative of the Russell family and a shareholder of the Welsh TV station. He is very arrogant. Who gave him the courage? Just relying on the Russell family?"

“…”

Thomas didn't dare to respond. Although in the eyes of the gentleman in front of him, the Russell family did seem... not so good, but for ordinary people, their family was already out of reach!

That’s the famous Russell family!

…

Of course... this Russell is not that Russell, not the Earl of Orford family, this is the Russell family of Ireland.

Since the 19th century, for nearly two hundred years, their family has been a powerful family active in the British House of Commons, and was later named the first Earl Russell.

It has been more than a hundred years since the ancestors were conferred the title of earl. Although the later generations of earls in their family were more or less idle, they still had some power, especially the third generation Earl Russell, who once won the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a scholar, he was very famous in the world at that time.

But...the third Earl Russell's ideas tend to be conservative and pacifist.

As a person who was born at the heyday of the British Empire and died at its decline, and who witnessed hundreds of years of history, the old earl lived for 98 years!

During his long life, he lived in America and supported several political parties, but during the war years, he always supported peace and opposed war. This concept caused serious conflicts with most of the congressmen at that time and some people in his hometown.

Take the Hill family for example, the two families’ locations are very close to each other.

But the Hill family is a staunch advocate of war, because only through war can there be military merit, and also because of war, their family can make money, arrange people to go to the battlefield, and make money from the army.

Without war...it's not that the Hill family doesn't play a role in peacetime, but who is willing to just maintain local security every day?

Who doesn’t want a prosperous family with some aspirations?

So... there is a little conflict between the two sides, but because the gap in strength is too big, the Russell family has always been very honest in front of the Hill family, so they didn't do anything to them.

…

If we compare the size of the Hill family and the Russell family.

The former is a traditional hereditary noble earl who holds certain real power and an unknown number of "house soldiers". There are countless weapons in the family storehouse. The entire family is experienced in combat, and family members have been ruthless for generations.

But what about the Russell family?

Their family is interested in literature and is a rising star. Although they are also hereditary nobles, the history of their entire family is less than two hundred years. In the entire family history, the number of people they have seen may not be as many as the number of people killed by the Hill family. Even with this development, the family has declined until now. The fourth generation Earl Russell, who is now in charge, succeeded to the throne a year later than Allen. He occasionally shows up in the House of Lords, and never leaves the house all year round. It is questionable whether the servants in the family can pick up a shovel.

These two families... It can be said that although the Russell family is an earl, they are at the bottom of the "strength" among the earl families. They are famous, but their hard power is not good.

The Hill family, among the earl families, is less famous, but its hard power has exceeded the standard.

The two sides are not on the same level at all.

…

"Okay, I get it. Go ahead and do your work. Find a time in a few days to meet that Sir. Just pass on my message."

Alan waved his hand and smiled. He already had a preliminary plan. Now... he needed to plan a little bit on how to implement it.

…

Just a few days later, the BBC did as Ceylon said, they had a big news.

During the morning news, the international channel that could be received throughout the Commonwealth broadcast the news that when Forbes was attacking the estate of the cult leader Koresh and was unable to capture it, the "incompetent" Forbes used fire attack tactics.

It was a flamethrower weapon that indiscriminately attacked the manor.

This resulted in dozens of "innocent" civilians living in the manor being burned to death.

Although the video was not very clear, it restored the scene at the first possible time.

This is completely different from the "accidental injury" announced by the United States. This is the indiscriminate killing of innocent people!

As soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar.

…

One afternoon in late May, at the Russell family's ancestral home in the suburbs of Swansea.

This is not a manor. The Russell family does not have the financial resources to build a manor.

The approximate rank of a noble can be distinguished from the name.

Prince of Wales - that's about as good as owning the whole of Wales.

Earl of Carmarthen - almost the whole of Carmarthenshire belongs to him.

Earl Russell - almost the entire Russell family belongs to him.

A title without a place name is equivalent to having no fiefdom.

For nobles with fiefs, some of the places they owned were not that big, but they would still have a small village or a small county town. For those who were even worse off, there were also fictitious titles named after a place in their hometown with symbolic meaning, such as a mountain or a river.

But the only ones whose names come before the titles are the lowest in the same rank, without a doubt.

…

It was still those two old Bentleys. Although they were old models, the license plates on the front of the two cars were very famous throughout Wales.

The Russell family's ancestral home had not been so lively for a long time. More than a dozen servants, the fourth Earl Russell and his son, and a large group of people stood at the gate ready to welcome Alan who had just got off the car.

After getting out of the car, Alan looked over there, but did not rush over. Instead, he stood by the car and waited for the bodyguards in the car behind to escort a white-haired old man with a terrified look on his face to get out of the car.

"Master! Master, save me!"

The old man didn't dare to struggle at all. After getting off the car, he saw the middle-aged man with a strong scholarly air standing at the gate of the Russell family's ancestral home. The old man seemed to have found a savior. The desire for life burst out in his eyes, and then he struggled and shouted.

…